Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick off the summer entertaining season, which means we're headed into a flurry of backyard barbecues, poolside celebrations, picnics in the park, and all manner of warm-weather gatherings. It's the time of year most of us look forward to; who doesn't relish the chance to spend time with friends and family, fire up the grill, and enjoy the good weather? But if you're planning a party (or several), this time of year can also be stressful. What should you make to toast your son's high school graduation? What's the best way to arrange the dishes on the buffet? And how should you serve drinks? Even if you're an experienced host or hostess, chances are you're looking for new recipe inspiration or a fresh take on setting the table.

To get you started and to eliminate any pre-party anxiety, we have tons of summer menu and entertaining advice. For our Backyard Party Plan, we asked four entertaining experts (Lulu Powers, Rebecca Rather, David Stark, and Jonathan Fong) for their best ideas on food, drinks, decor, and fun. You'll love their do-ahead menu of classic summer fare (think fried chicken, grilled corn, and a zesty slaw), plus their ideas for repurposing items from around your home to create a stylish and welcoming atmosphere without spending a ton of cash.

If choosing recipes is your biggest obstacle, look no further than our Summer Party Menu-Planning Quiz. Answer four easy questions about the kind of gathering you're hosting and our fun, interactive tool creates a custom menu. And, if it's not quite what you had in mind, go back and change your answers until you get the perfect meal.

You may recall the news in February of South Koreans using snack sausages as a "meat stylus" to control their iPhone touchscreens in cold weather while wearing gloves.

Well, if you felt funny about using a Slim Jim as your own personal stylus, iPod and iPad accessory company Crown Case is selling its own sausage stylus ($4.99), which is as legit as meat-based smartphone accessories can get.

According to Case Crown: "Live in a cold area where you have to use gloves to avoid frostbite? Or maybe you just want to keep your fingers warm. Then you know how much of a hassle it is to take off your gloves to use your apps. Or just to have an alternative for your fingers because you can't use pens or clothed hands."

Unfortunately, no matter how hungry you may be, the stylus is "Not for consumption." Gadget blog Gizmodo recently reviewed the sausage styli and found that they were surprisingly effective for navigating, though perhaps not for typing, which the blog deemed "a mess" unless you invest in two sausages: "When using two sausages, it almost feels normal to gently beat your screen with meat products—like drumming. While typing speed does suffer in comparison to using ten fingers, accuracy does not. In fact, it feels as if being limited to two input points forced me to pay more attention to what I'm typing and perhaps make fewer errors."

Gizmodo's overall verdict: "These sausage styluses make you look a bit silly in public, but they spare your screen from greasy fingerprints and are great if you're wearing gloves. Sure, there are alternatives that look more serious, but where's the fun in that?"

I just about swooned over the delightfully cheery cover for Porch Parties: Cocktail Recipes and Easy Ideas for Outdoor Entertaining (Chronicle Books) by Denise Gee. Never mind that the book's title tapped into my long-seated desire for a wrap-around porch. Yes, the book's premise is based on entertaining on the porch, but it's not really even about the where so much as the what: evoking memories of time spent relaxing with friends and family, as well as creating the setting to make new ones.

Gee's collection of recipes focuses on drinks, many of which are a new take on classics. There's the Mojito that calls for Prosecco instead of club soda, a Mimosa made with pear nectar, and a Bloody Mary rimmed with Old Bay Seasoning. Make yourself a Martini with strawberry-flavored vodka and guava juice, or one that uses Concord grape juice, instead. A huge plus for the book is Gee's thoughtful inclusion of non-alcoholic drinks. Unlike bars which typically only offer soda and juice, guests can now partake in the festivities with refreshing drinks such as Ginger Lemonade, June Bug (ginger ale, grenadine, orange juice, and orange sherbet), and Agua Fresca de Honeydew. Of course, alcohol can be added to any of the virgin drinks. Gee also includes a helpful list of substitute liquids in case you want an alcoholic drink sans alcohol (try substituting white grape juice mixed with lime for any recipe that calls for vodka). Entertaining tips for decor, set-up, and serving are all included, as well.

So as you plan for your Memorial Day weekend and upcoming summer parties, consider picking up a copy of Denise Gee's Porch Parties for new and inspired drink ideas.

Not to pick on the Wall Street Journal too much, because its mission is to keep the money people up on what makes money, but its piece on the new push for more intense flavors in processed food was pretty depressing. It goes on and on about the race to produce hotter Doritos and "watermelon spring" gum etc. because "the American palate is changing." It justifies that notion by noting that the average kitchen has many more spices than in the past, and I was pretty surprised that the number is now 40. But I think the real reason is that food companies always need a new gimmick.

What really got me was this graf: "As people crave intensity in flavor, some traditionalists are wondering if diners will become desensitized to natural flavors. Regular mangoes may taste bland when eaten next to mango-flavored gum or a mango energy drink, they say."

I feel pretty confident in saying that nothing artificial could be as intense as the flavor of a perfectly ripe mango. And if Big Food would put a few hundred million into marketing mangoes, people would be storming produce stands right now, when amazing champagne mangoes are so cheap and so perfect. Compared with tricked-up food, fruit almost has to sell itself.

Can you believe it? The unofficial start of summer is finally here. If you'll be doing any outdoor cooking, you might want to check out our complete grilling and barbecue package. For those who want to brush up on their skills, we have a grilling primer, including technique videos, that covers everything from arranging the coals or burners (learn all about direct versus indirect heat, the key to cooking different types of food perfectly) to how to know when your food is done (master the poke test, and you'll be a grilling pro). We've also got a guide from cooking teacher Steven Raichlen to American barbecue—what it is (hint, it's definitely not the same as grilling!), the different regional styles (tangy Carolina pulled pork, sticky Kansas City ribs, tender Texas brisket, and more), and how to reproduce the best local barbecue on your home grill.

I am addicted to coffee, and no matter how many coffee detox "breaks" I may take, I will never undergo eternal coffee deprivation.

I start off every morning by grinding whole beans to make an Americano (a shot of espresso mixed with hot water) using an espresso machine. If I need to make the coffee in large quantities, say for a ten-person dinner party, I turn to my trusty drip coffee maker. I also possess a stove top espresso maker and a French press. As noted in our coffee primer, the art of coffee can vary from basic to quite intricate, which I would say is part of coffee's universal appeal.

The only coffee appliance that I am completely opposed to is making coffee from a pod. Not only does it taste bitter and thin, but I would imagine that the little containers must be bad for environment. And it tastes very processed, just like American cheese tastes more of chemicals than cheese.

Are you very particular about how your coffee is made? What methods do you employ?

Father's Day is rolling around again, and with it the usual dilemma: What to buy Dad? Here, a few offbeat gifts to keep Pops sweet.

This practical, heavy-duty, ruggedly manly apron comes with professional-grade steel grilling tools. Now Dad can flip burgers without fear of staining the ties the less-creative members of the family bought him.

Jamie Oliver led the way for men who want to cook delicious, frill-free food. Now Dad can expand his culinary repertoire - which can only benefit the whole family, you included - with Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook, $23.07.

Men who have a taste for fine Scotch will appreciate the gift that keeps on giving: Membership of the Whisky Explorer Club. As a "Scout" member, your father will receive a spirits tasting glass and then during the year six deliveries of four 50mL tasting bottles of whiskies from around the world. A clever twist: The whiskies arrive with no brand or age marked. The recipient is given clues to unmask each whisky's identity on the Whisky Explorer Club website.

Love Wüsthof knives? Check out the new the Japanese-style 7-inch Nakiri knife, a modern take on the traditional Japanese vegetable cleaver. It has a thin blade for precision cutting, and its edge is angled on both sides to make it easy to make straight cuts. A great gift, no matter how you slice it.

Spice up Dad's year with the Hot Sauce of the Month Club. A year's membership includes two varieties of hot sauce from award-winning chefs and restaurants around the world delivered right to your door every month. The company tracks down hard-to-find, limited-production sauces to make this a unique gift. If you can't swing for the yearly membership, check out the three- and six-month options.

I am in London for a wedding and have already been to a cavalcade of festivities. At these parties a lot of drinks are served, from Pimm's Cups, the go-down-easy-then-bite-you-on-the-butt, classic English drink; to Bloody Marys made with gin and energetic amounts of fresh horseradish; to elderflower cordials mixed with vodka, white rum, or champagne, all of which, while scented like a summer morning, can bring on the need for a fainting couch.

To get through the next few days, I am going to adopt a "be kind to your liver" regime and recommend abstinence to myself. Whether I follow my good advice remains to be seen.

Around this time last year, I wrote about how much I love to grill pizza, shared my tips, and debated the pros and cons of using a pizza stone on the grill. Toward the end of last summer (after many a grilled pizza), I developed another pizza dough on the grill obsession and it's too good not to share.

The obsession started when I stumbled upon this recipe for Grilled Olive and Feta Stuffed Focaccia, which could just as easily be called a stuffed pizza or even a really big calzone. Basically you roll some pizza dough into a rectangle, cover half with some olives, Feta, and rosemary (the recipe includes raisins but I'm anti-raisin so I skipped those), fold and seal it, and then grill both sides. What you end up with is a rather amazing pizza pocket. The grill gives the dough a nice char while the cheese melts and combines with the olives and rosemary to create a soft, slightly tangy, slightly brine-y filling. It's pretty dynamite. I served it as a side or extra-special bread but paired with a salad, stuffed focaccia would make a lovely lunch or light dinner. Or, cut it into small pieces and you've got seriously good party hors d'oeuvres.

The best part is that the recipe is so adaptable. After the Greek-style combo from the original recipe, I tried cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and fresh basil and in a later iteration I added slivers of prosciutto to the mix. Pesto with thin slices of zucchini and summer squash also worked. Think about any pizza topping you like or any combination of ingredients that doesn't require extensive cooking, stuff it into some pizza dough, and toss it on the grill—it will probably work and most likely be delicious.

Have you ever made a grilled, stuffed pizza? What ingredients did you use?